


The Dark Dreams of Charlie Eppes

by ladygray99



Series: Vignettes [2]
Category: Numb3rs
Genre: M/M, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-12-21
Updated: 2009-12-21
Packaged: 2017-10-04 20:04:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,025
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/33619
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ladygray99/pseuds/ladygray99
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Charlie has bad dreams and someone needs to pay the price.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Dark Dreams of Charlie Eppes

**Author's Note:**

> Part of the Vignettes 'verse after Chapter 7

Alan woke with a start, he was out of bed and half way down the hall to Charlie’s room before his brain even really caught up with what was going on. He could hear Charlie’s screams through the door. He entered to find Charlie sitting strait up in bed, screaming, eyes wide open.

 “Charlie! Wake up.” He gave Charlie a shake. Charlie flinched and tried to fight. “Charlie! You’re dreaming! Wake up!” Alan shouted. Charlie blinked a few times coming awake then grabbed his father.

 “You’re alive, you’re alive, you’re alive.” Charlie began to sob.

 “Shhhhh. That’s right, I’m alive. It was just a bad dream. I’m right here.” Alan gently rubbed his back.

 “They were all dead, and the gun jammed, and it was so loud, and I tried to fire but it wouldn’t work, I kept trying, and it was jammed, and they were all dead.” Tears ran down Charlie’s cheeks and he held his father tighter.

 Alan felt a block of ice cold anger settle into his chest.

 “It’s ok. You’ll never need to fire a gun, understand me?”

 “I had to save them, I was the only one left, it wouldn’t fire.”

 “Shhhhh, shhhhh. It’s ok, it’s ok. It was just a bad dream.”

 _‘Don Eppes you are in so much trouble.’_

~

 Colby was deep into morning paperwork when Don growled into his ear.

 “Hallway, right now.” Colby jumped. Don sounded ready to kill. At least in the hall people could see if Don drew down on him.

 “Hey Don. What’s up?” Colby tried to sound casual.

 “What’s up is that I didn’t get any sleep last night. I didn’t get any sleep because at 1 a.m. Charlie woke up screaming that everyone was dead and his gun wouldn’t fire. My father, assuming I had something to do with this, felt the need to call me up and read me the Riot Act. It took damn near an hour to get Charlie calmed down enough to explain that no it wasn’t his loving big brother but rather one of his brother’s agents who took him down to the range, put a gun in his hand, and told him everyone he knows could _die _if he didn’t learn how to shoot it. What the fuck where you thinking!” Don ended with a shout.

 Colby took a step back. He had expected he might get a telling off for teaching Charlie how to shoot, but not that it would send Charlie into nocturnal screaming fits.

 “He’s an adult Don,” Colby defended. “There’s nothing wrong with him knowing how to shoot.”

 “He’s. Not. Normal. He doesn’t process things the same way you and I do. This could last for months, and he has no need to shoot a gun. Ever.”

 “Come on Don, how much time does he spend hanging around here, hanging around us? He does everything short of kicking doors in. You should have taught him how to shoot years ago.”

 “Don’t you dare tell me how to take care of my brother.” Don snarled.

 “I’ve got brothers to Don. They worry you sick and make you want to tear your hair out. How many times has Charlie been in line of fire since he started working with you? God help him the day something goes bad and he ends up with a gun in his hand and _doesn’t_ know how to use it. I bet we could get him to calculate the exact odds of _just_ how well that would go.”

 “You have never had to listen to him scream, Granger.” Don whispered darkly.

 “I’m sorry for your lack of sleep, Don but I’d rather know Charlie was screaming every night then dead in a puddle of his own blood. There’s a lot of weird shit in the basement of Quantico but I’ve yet to see cloning vats with spare Charlies floating in them.” Colby braced himself. From the look on Don’s face he was either going to get a broken nose or get transferred to Anchorage.

 “You’re on your desk duty for a week, and you apologize to Charlie and my dad the next time you them.”

 Colby hung his head. “Yes sir.” Don looked like he wanted to say more but just snapped his teeth together and walked away.

 ~

 Colby was on his way to lunch when he ran into Charlie coming into the building. It had been three days since Don had chewed him out and hadn’t gotten a chance to see Charlie since he’d been confined to his desk.

 “Hey, Charlie.”

 “Hey.” Charlie said with a wave.

 “Have you got a second?” Colby asked.

 “Yeah, I’ve been meaning to talk with you anyways.”

 “Yeah, look, I need to apologize. I had no idea.”

 Charlie shook his head. “No, I need to apologize. Don had no right telling you off. It wasn’t any of his damn business to begin with.”

 “Hey, he was just worried about you.”

 Charlie rolled his eyes. “I have nightmares Colby, for as fast as my brain can process information my unconscious, id, whatever, can’t. Nightmares are just how I process. Doing fluid dynamics I was waking up every other night convinced I was going to drown. CDC work, it’s all about the plague. Larry’s super gravity; I get black holes, cold death of the universe. I learn how to shoot a gun I’m going to have nightmares about guns.” Charlie gave a shrug as if it were the simplest statement of fact.

“Still.”

“Larry doesn’t get told off when I’m falling into black holes for months. It’s only because it was a gun, and dad has never liked that fact of Don’s work, and he likes the thought me turning fed even less.”

“You planning on signing up for the academy?” Colby joked.

“Pay cut’s not worth it. But you were right, I should have probably learned to shoot a long time ago and Don was never going to do it.”

“Still, sorry for the nightmares.”

Charlie shrugged. “I’ll live, my only problem is that somewhere in Don’s head I’m still four and screaming into my pillow about mushroom clouds over LA.”


End file.
